Molly Hunt
This blog post is a final product of my self directed learning project on unschooling. Unschooling is an alternative schooling method that has become more popular in recent years. This essay contains the philosophy, implementation, and results of unschooling.
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Philosophy
In
1970, an educator named John Holt developed an alternative education style that
he called “unschooling.” Holt observed that humans are born to be learners, and
children learn best when they are allowed to learn about what they are
interested in (Fetteroll, 2015). “If something strikes their passions, the
thinking goes, kids will pursue it to the end, picking up intellectual
skills and self-motivation as they go” (Shultz, 2014). Holt argued that the
traditional educational system was inefficient and ineffective because it
enforced a “one size fits all” curriculum onto children. Teachers in
institutions, he argued, can not properly cater to an individual’s present
needs with regards to pacing, subject matter, teaching style, etc. Holt
advocated for homeschool, community-based, child-centered education. The result
was the emergence of unschooling. His book can be found here.
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It is estimated that 10% of the 1.5 million homeschooled children in the United States are unschooled (Chang, 2010). Unschooling is a subset of homeschooling in which the child’s passions, interests, and curiosity guide their educational path. Unschooled children withdraw (or never partake) in the traditional education system, and learn in an entirely different way. It is different from home schooling because unschooling does not incorporate “school-like” tasks such as homework, textbooks, formal lessons, distinct subjects, etc. Unschooling is learner-centered—the child has a say what, how, and when they are going to learn something. There are no curriculums, teachers, grades, or assessments in an unschooling home. There is a large focus on play, autonomy, familial relationships, and self discovery. While parents do play an important role in their child’s unschooling, it is the child who guides his or her day-to-day activities at home. An unschooling educator named Daniel Greenberg (1991) wrote: “Play is the vehicle through which people produce creative outcomes in action.”
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| http://www.123rf.com/photo_2389255_silhouette-of-five-children-doing-various-play-time-activities.html |
Unschooling is
centered around self-directed learning to give children the autonomy to choose
to learn about topics that interest him or her. Blake Boles, an author who has
published several works on unschooling defines self-directed learning as:
1. Defining a system of personal values
that aren’t thoughtlessly harvested from those of your family, friends, or
society
2. Figuring out what kind of
work you love so much that you’d do it for little (or no) pay
3. Embracing the dual notions of
freedom and responsibility
4. Making all of the major
decisions in your life for yourself (to the extent that’s possible given legal
and practical constraints).
Unschoolers believe that their
children learn best when they decide what interests them, which leads to
exploration, and eventually learning. In Holt’s book How Children Fail
he discussed how structured curriculum does not aid a child’s intellectual
growth because no teacher can accurately guess what types of skills a child
will need in the future. “Since we can’t know what knowledge will be coms
needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead,
we should try to turn out the people who love learning so much and learn so
well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned” (Holt,
1964).
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| http://www.wikihow.com/Unschool-Yourself-and-Your-Children |
There
are many reasons why parents decide to unschool their children. Here are some
of the most discussed topics brought up by unschooling parents, based on many
journals, articles, blogs, and books:
1. The
formal education system does not provide their child with the skills that they
deem most important.
2. Formal
education separates the bond between parent and child while the child is away
from home for several hours a day.
3. There
is too much pressure put on children to perform highly on quantitative tests,
which leads to unnecessary anxiety.
4. The
predetermined and standardized curriculum of formal educations does not cater
to individual students’ needs.
5. Bullying
and violence happens at schools.
Parents who choose to unschool
attempt to nurture their children to be life-long learners, who know and love
themselves, who are “free thinkers,” and who are curious, open, peaceful,
strong, confident, and honest (Morrison, 2016).
“The goal of unschooling is not
education. It is to help a child be who she is and blossom into who she will
become. Learning happens as a side effect.” –Joyce Fetteroll
Implementation
Here is a
hypothetical unschooling situation: Sally, an 10-year old girl, is particularly
interested in birds. Her unschooling parents assume that she would have the
self motivation to direct herself to learn about birds. This, in theory, would
open her eyes to lots of opportunities to deeply understand something that she
is motivated to learn about. On her own she might start to read books about the
many types of birds, do some bird observations in her neighborhood, and learn
bird calls. All of the things that she has learned about birds would lead her
to investigate subtopics for further exploration: the anatomy of birds, their
flight patterns, migration, mating, and so on. Sally’s interest in birds
spiraled into an opportunity for her to gain knowledge in many diverse topics.
The underlying
theme is that the child completely lead herself to the acquisition of this
knowledge. In contrast, in a traditional school setting, if the children were
going to learn about birds, the teacher would choose the subject and the time
of year to study it. Then she would most likely assign a textbook reading,
worksheets, or a group project etc. The children might eventually find interest
in the topic after having done work to become familiar with it. According to
the unschooling philosophy, a much more effective learning strategy is for the
child to first identify an interest
of theirs, and then discover ways to
investigate the topic further.
Kathleen
Kesson
In a journal
written by Kellie Rolstad and Kathleen Kesson, the two women write in-depth
synopses of their family’s’ experience with unschooling. Kathleen, whose
children were unschooled in the early 1980s, discussed what she thought was one
of the most beneficial aspects of unschooling: her son’s ability to create an
individualized learning style. Kathleen was most influenced by the idea that
“kids possess an inner compass to guide them on their educational journey, and
the notion that genuine learning must be grounded in rich and meaningful
experience” (Kesson & Rolstad, 2013).
Unschooling gave Kathleen’s
son the independence to explore the topics that he found most interesting and
self-navigate his way towards understanding those concepts. Here is the process
that Shaman took in exploring his interest in maps:
1.
Shaman begins
to draw maps:
“He did four maps this morning—one of the United States, one
of the U.S., Alaska and Canada (with provinces), one of Australia, and one of
the world (a sphere). This last one was particularly interesting to me because
he drew the globe from the perspective of the sun at 3:00AM (our time.) This
launched a discussion about which way the earth spins, why we have time zones,
what causes the seasons, etc.” (Kesson & Rolstad, 2013).
2.
Shaman started initiating conversation about bigger concepts such as area,
perimeter, population, and boundaries.
3. Shaman
informally acquired information about “advanced geographical concepts (area, perimeter,
population, boundaries, borders, equator, continents, hemispheres, latitude,
longitude, etc.)
4. Shaman practiced
mathematical skills (calculating sums and comparing values using all
four of the basic mathematical operations into the millions). (Kesson &
Rolstad, 2013)
“He
relished working out comparative math problems that he generated from looking
at lists of populations, areas in square miles, and other demographic details (Kesson & Rolstad, 2013).
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| http://www.pbs.org/parents/expert-tips-advice/2016/01/children-still-need-read-draw-maps/ |
Shaman’s thorough engagement in
geography lead him to develop mapping, mathematical, and many other skills. Would
he have gained as much knowledge on this topic in a typical education setting?
Unschoolers would argue that he would not have. Based on unschooling
philosophy, Shaman’s initial interest in the subject combined with his
structure-free learning environment and self-directed learning abilities,
allowed him to dive deep into his own study of maps and geography. Kathleen
wrote that it “gave him the experience of teaching himself, and the
self-respect and confidence that he developed in himself as a learner could not
have been achieved in any other way.”
Kohn and Unschooling
In
Alfie Kohn’s book Punished by Rewards, he argues that the emphasis we
put on rewards in our educational system undermines students’ intrinsic
motivation. Many of Kohn’s criticisms are closely related to the things that
unschooling parents try to avoid in their alternative educational setting. The “do
this, you will get that” ideology that teachers employ in classrooms is
something that Kohn argues is harmful for long-term academic interest and
participation. He argues that our culture is plagued by a reliance and
obsession with rewards in order to get people to do the things that we want
them to do. Kohn acknowledges that rewards can motivate people, but they
“motivate people to get rewards.” What he means by this is that the person is
no longer doing what you tell him or her to because of their interest or
fulfillment, they are doing it to receive a reward. This can have drastic
long-term consequences on intrinsic motivation, and mental health, according to
Kohn. In the unschooling technique, all learning is student-centered, so the
skills are not determined by the curriculum. Kohn points this out in his book Unconditional Parenting when he says : “Educators
remind us that what counts in a classroom is not what the teacher teaches; it’s
what the learner learns” (Kohn, 2003)
In Chapter 11, Kohn
asserts that children start out as “enthusiastic and skillful learners,”
(Kohn, 1993) because they are inherently motivated to learn about the world
around them. This is very similar to that of John Holt’s core ideologies when
he created the unschooling principles. Teachers, Kohn argues, are not
responsible for motivating their students, they are responsible for influence
their motivation and learning.
Kohn’s main
criticism of the educational system is that children’s intrinsic motivation is
undermined by the rewards that we present to them to motivate them to learn. In
contrast, in an unschooling household, there are no rewards, and students
completely self-direct their learning. This is the truest form of intrinsic
motivation that one could find because the students are only doing the things
that they are interested in.
The results
One of the
main concerns with children who are unschooled is that they will not be
prepared for life in the outside world. However, there have been several
studies that have suggest otherwise. Psychologists Peter Gray and Gina Riley
(2013) surveyed 232 families who had unschooled their children and found that
their children had “improved learning, better attitudes about learning, and
improved psychological and social wellbeing for the children; and increased
closeness, harmony, and freedom for the whole family.”
A different study (Click here for the link) examined the relationship between the time that a child spent to the
development of their executive functions. The study found that “The more time that children spent in
less-structured activities, the better their self-directed executive
functioning. The opposite was true of structured activities,
which predicted poorer self-directed executive functioning” (Barker et al.,
2014). Unschooled children tend to have much more unstructured time than
children in typical educational settings, making them more likely to fall into
the group of students with higher executive functioning. Additionally, children
who spent more tine in unstructured activities “displayed better self-directed
control, even after controlling for age, verbal ability, and household income”
(Barker et al., 2014). The researchers concluded that unstructured time may
support the development of executive functioning, which can have great benefits
later on in life.
Grace Llewlyn, an unschooling mother and author said that one of the
most obvious benefits of their family’s alternative education strategy was that
her children began to question all that they knew, “They’re interested in
knowing things. They’re curious. They’re starting to see that learning is not
something you do just to pass a test.”
Website that summarizes unstopping information can be found here.
Website that summarizes unstopping information can be found here.
Works Cited
Barker, J.
E., Semenov, A. D., Michaelson, L., Provan, L. S., Snyder, H. R., &
Munakata, Y. (2014). Less-structured time in children's daily lives predicts
self-directed executive functioning. Frontiers in Psychology, 5.
Retrieved March 10, 2016 from http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00593/full
Chang, J.
(2010, April 19). Extreme Homeschooling: No Tests, No Books, No Classes, No
Curriculums. Retrieved March 12, 2016, from
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/unschooling-homeschooling-book-tests-classes/story?id=10410867
Gray, P.
& Gina, R. (2013) The challenges and benefits of unschooling, according to
232 families who have chosen that route. Journal
of Unschooling and Alternative Learning. 7(14). Retrieved from
http://jual.nipissingu.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2014/06/v72141.pdf
Greenberg,
D. (1991). Free at last: The Sudbury Valley School. Framingham, MA:
Sudbury Valley School Press.
Holt, J. C.
(1964). How children fail. New York: Pitman.
Kohn, A.
(2005). Unconditional parenting: Moving from rewards and punishments to love
and reason. New York: Atria Books.
Kohn, A.
(1993). Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans,
A's, praise, and other bribes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Morrison, K.
(2016). “The courage to let them play”: factors influencing and limiting the
feelings of self-efficacy in unschooling mothers.” Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning 10(19). Retrieved
from
http://jual.nipissingu.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2015/10/v10193.pdf
Rolstad, K.
& Kesson, K. (2013). Unschooling, then and now. Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning 7(14). Retrieved from
http://jual.nipissingu.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2014/06/v72142.pdf
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